THIRTY-SEVEN
In the four days following Zant's death, Castle Town's water supply was clean again, free of any sign of contamination or disease, and free of any rational explanation as to how that could happen. As they scratched their heads and questioned the how and the why, the city's residents resumed business as usual; as a result, most everyone smelled much nicer from finally being able to take a bath, less children complained about being thirsty, and their parents filled up bottles to store some water away, on the off chance that the water would become contaminated again.
The incidence of Cucco flu in Castle Town also decreased gradually, as people recovered from the illness faster than new patients became infected. While there was still not enough medicine to go around, many of those who fell ill had been given bottles of soup from generous strangers. There was something about that soup, people said, that changed everything: not only did their fevers break and their symptoms disappear completely after consuming it, but they found themselves feeling completely renewed, and filled with energy and vitality. Where did the elixir-like soup come from, people asked.
Making the soup was about the only thing Ketura did in the days following her father's funeral. She would spend three to four hours a night laying down in the flat, seeing if she would finally sleep, until it was time to get up and head into the bar's kitchen to work. If what the Castle Town branch of the Liberation Movement had told her was true, the soup really was helping people get over the flu. That news renewed a small sense of hope and significance in her, now that she knew that there was a feasible way to save peoples' lives. She kept her hands busy and her mind busy, for as she waited for that soup to simmer she would also assist Telma with preparing food for bar patrons and washing their dishes. Kitchen work hadn't been her favorite activity in the past, but now it had become a sort of refuge. In there, it didn't matter that Castle Town had just been freed from the terror that was Zant, or that she was the one who killed him, or that she had inherited the Triforce of Courage from her father, or that she didn't know what to do about Ganondorf. In there, the question of what to do next did not exist.
"Ketura, can you spare a minute to talk to me?"
Telma entered the bar's kitchen and found Ketura standing over the giant cauldron, stirring potato cubes into the broth. Ketura looked up to the older woman, delighted to get her face away from hot steam and smoke for a moment of time.
"Yes?" she asked tiredly, pushing the sleeves of her sweater up over her elbows. She found the sweater and a new pair of pants while going through the closet in the flat's spare bedroom; the pants fit fine, but the sweater was too big and its sleeves were too long.
"When was the last time you slept, hun?" Telma asked with a motherly kind of concern. "You're in here from sunrise to the wee hours, slaving over that cauldron. Not that I don't appreciate the extra help, but … you ought to get some rest. I can handle the soup and the rest of the kitchen just fine."
Ketura glanced back down at the soup, thinking that it would need to simmer for two hours, and that it would be better to get Telma off her case now rather than later. "Okay, thanks," she said. "It just needs to simmer for a couple of hours. Give it a stir from time to time. Then I'll need to add the … the secret ingredient."
Going from the kitchen along the back walls of the bar to avoid being in the middle of the bar and its noisy lunchtime crowd, Ketura made her way back up to the flat and sat herself down on the couch in the living room. Instead of sleeping, or trying to read, she stared on a fixed point across the room: the hilt of the Master Sword, propped against the wall. After gazing at the sword with her mind wandering, she stood back up and meandered through the flat. If she were hungry, she may have taken a pastry from the pile of them set out on the kitchen table, but she abstained. On the table next to the plate of pastries lay an open envelope, and the corner of a pictograph stuck out of the envelope's mouth. She pulled the pictograph the rest of the way out and held it at the edges.
The pictograph depicted Link, looking much younger: around nineteen years old, with the scar on the left side of his face darker and more prominent than it had been in his later years. He sat in a wooden rocking chair, leaning all the way back, his eyes closed and a serene look on his face, and a small blanket-wrapped baby in his arms and resting on his chest. The baby had a little face with chubby cheeks, closed eyes, and tufts of hair on her head. On the bottom edge of the pictograph was a handwritten caption: Link with baby Ketura, 2/2/81.
Tears filled Ketura's eyes. She dropped to the ground, curled up in a ball, and she cried. She didn't remember when that pictograph was taken, being a sleeping baby at the time and all, but she knew she would never feel that safe or loved ever again. The one man who was supposed to protect her from the evils of the world had been destroyed by them, and she failed to save him. Her shoulders shook with her sobs, her heart ached, and the weight of reality and grief crushed her. Link was gone, and she would give anything – even the Triforce of Courage – to have him back.
Why did the Goddesses give it to her, she wondered. Later that night, Ketura returned to the kitchen to get back to work on the soup, and at one point she stopped chopping potatoes just to look at the back of her hand. The Triforce crest sat there, like a divine tattoo, a mark, an affliction, a stain. What was she supposed to do with it anyway? Did it grant her special powers? Ever since she got it she didn't feel especially braver or more inclined to perform acts of heroism. She wondered what she had done to deserve it, because she didn't feel like it was rightfully hers at all.
She bottled up the last batch of soup and started cleaning out the cauldron for the night when she heard the pantry door open. Mildly startled, Ketura turned around to see Impa emerging, followed by all three of Telma's siblings, Colin, Luda, Talo, and Ashei. Impa stopped abruptly when she saw Ketura at the cauldron.
"Ketura … I didn't expect to see you here," began Impa. "Still hard at work on that soup, I see. How are you?"
"I'm fine," Ketura replied automatically. In reality, she felt far from fine, but she didn't know how to express that.
Impa took a few steps towards Ketura, allowing the others to step out of the pantry into the kitchen. "We have all come here to talk to you, and I assume you know what I want to talk about."
A lump formed in Ketura's throat. "Yes."
"Come along, then." Impa gestured to the door leading out to the bar before taking off towards it. Ketura followed, feelings of dread and apprehension growing inside of her. She expected everyone to judge her, to call her stupid like Midna had, to let her know how devastated her father would be if he knew. It didn't even help to tell herself that it was finally time to do what she had originally set out to do, which was to share all of the information she had gathered over the past couple of months.
She sat down at an empty seat at the head of the table, with Telma opposite of her at the other end. The others all sat on either side of her, with pencils and blank pieces of paper on the table in front of them. Nabira, Levali, and Zahrain looked down at their paper so that they would not have to look at her; Luda, Colin, Talo, and Telma all looked concerned. Impa stood behind Ketura, arms crossed, expression steeled.
"All right, Ketura, are you ready?" asked Impa.
Ketura nodded.
"Then start talking. I want to know everything. From the very beginning."
She made herself take a deep breath, wondering how much of what all had happened between herself and Ganondorf would make it into "everything." Some things, she saw no reason to include, but at the same time she saw no reason to omit them.
"I brought him back from the dead."
Everyone at the table suddenly snapped to attention, looking shocked and disgusted.
"It was an accident, though. I was walking home across the field that night, and there was this hole in the ground, and a dead person's face, and a magic stone that glowed when I said a prayer-"
"A Baetha stone?" Levali interrupted her.
"Oh, that's its name, okay, yeah," said Ketura.
"Cult of Dragmire, I bet," murmured Nabira.
Ketura then recounted what else happened that night: how she ran home after seeing someone rise from the dead, how he followed her home to figure out who she was, how she discovered who he was, and his interest in finding her father. From there, she talked about how he followed her to Castle Town when the escort of soldiers took her to see Princess Zelda. As she talked, she noticed that people took notes on what she said. She paused momentarily, distracted by watching Luda's pencil glide across paper.
"What happened next?" Talo asked.
She looked over to him. "Nothing. He just let me go, and I left. I thought I'd go back to the castle and tell Zelda I had seen him, and then you all blew up a tower and I couldn't get there. I didn't see him again until I came to the Hidden Village with my dad."
"I remember how slimy the whole thing was," said Ashei as she jotted something on his paper. "He just shows up and says he wants to join us and work with us, with very little explanation other than 'we have the same goals.' Same goals my foot."
"And none of you thought to just send him back to hell the moment you saw him?" said Telma, clearly displeased. She shot Impa a dirty look.
"I thought that as long as he stayed in line he could be useful," said Impa defensively. Zahrain scoffed, while Levali snorted derisively and Nabira rolled her eyes.
"He offered to teach me how to use magic!" Ketura blurted out. "And apparently there's no afterlife … but anyway." She went on, sharing the stories of her secret midnight magic instructions.
"Why though? Why teach you?" Zahrain asked incredulously.
"Because … he told me that he was in my debt for bringing him back. And I wanted to learn."
"One of my sisters could have done that!" Telma sighed while waving her hand to the twins, who shook their heads in response.
"I'm not the teaching type," said Levali.
"You think it might be the Baetha attachment theory?" Nabira asked her sister.
"The what?" Ketura asked.
"There's debate on whether it's real or not, because the only evidence is one story about the sorceress Baetha and a woman she resurrected. But it's the idea that anyone you bring back from the dead will feel indebted because of what you did for them, and also have a special fondness for you. It's possible that is what happened. Did he ever act like that at all?"
What Nabira said seemed odd and almost ludicrous to Ketura, but the more she thought on it the more sense it made. "I guess that could be the case," she said tentatively. "I mean, he'd give me his cloak at night so I wouldn't be cold, and he'd bring me gifts from time to time-"
"What kind of gifts?" Telma asked, raising an eyebrow. "Are they upstairs in my flat right now?"
"Yes," said Ketura. As Telma's face turned an angry red, she quickly continued. "That's where I got the recipe for Red Potion, and I've been putting it in the soup that we've been giving to sick people …."
"We're getting off track," Impa cut in. "Anyway, what happened after you got back from the Faron Woods with the Master Sword?"
Ketura sighed, then started talking again, pausing after recounting how Ganondorf had wanted her to leave the Hidden Village with him to go look for Zant.
"You did the right thing then," commented Luda. Ketura nodded in appreciation.
"I'd still hardly call any of this the right thing," grumbled Zahrain.
"Well it's not unusual for teenagers to be impressionable and have bad judgment," said Luda.
"Yes, but we're not talking about typical stupid teenager stuff here. This is serious!"
"Adults get duped too, you know," Luda countered.
"I know, I've reached a completely new level of stupid, haven't I?" asked Ketura acerbically. She felt like she was on trial, although she knew that they probably wouldn't punish her in any way.
"ANYWAY, you didn't know then what it was he wanted with you?" Impa asked forcefully, trying to steer the conversation back on track.
"No. I still don't." Ketura replied.
"All right then. What next?"
"That's basically it. Every night the next few weeks, I'd go out at midnight, meet him, practice magic, sometimes he'd try and talk me into going off with him again and I said no every time. Then the Hylian army attacked the village."
"And after the rest of us escaped and fought off Zant's monsters in the field, he came to the meeting point and brought an unconscious you with him," Impa recalled. "What happened before that point?"
"I, uh," Ketura strained her memory, trying to remember what happened, until she settled for what she already knew. "I don't remember much. There were those shadow beasts, and I was running, and at some point Zant hit me in the face. I woke up in that underground cave where we all were hiding." She paused and looked around the table. Everyone except Telma were writing on their paper; Telma, still red-faced, leaned back in her chair with her arms folded tight across her chest. Ketura glanced back up to Impa, who gave her a short nod.
She kept talking, going on to describe how Link brought her to the Spirit Spring outside Ordon Village with hope that the Light Spirit there would protect her, how Zant terrorized Ordon Village and she stepped in, and how she lured Zant into the Sacred Grove to be harassed by Skull Kid so she could escape.
"Then Zant must have somehow found his way to that bridge, and he told his shadow beast minions to look all over Hyrule for Dad and me. I stayed under the bridge for a while, just to be safe … and then Ganondorf showed up there. He was talking to a Bulbin, about joining up forces I guess, but the Bulbin said no because I insulted him-"
"Stop. Join forces? Why?" asked Colin.
Ketura sighed, then looked up to Impa. "He told me he was going to start raising an army for your use. Bulbins were the first ones he went for, and when I asked him when he planned on telling you about the army, I'd get the usual answer of 'when the time is right.'"
Impa scoffed. "Bulbins? Why would I want them? Why would I want any army when I'm already surrounded by very strong, capable people?"
"Unless," said Ashei, "this army wouldn't be for us."
A heavy silence fell on the room. Ketura felt several pairs of eyes on her, burning their judgments into her with their gaze, probably wondering how blind and naïve she had been this whole time to not clearly see what was going on. She had had her suspicions, of course, but had wanted to wait for them to be confirmed before saying anything to anyone. Surely they would all understand that.
"Did he succeed in building his army?" Impa asked warily.
Ketura hesitated before answering. "Yes. He's gotten several packs of Lizalfos, and Moblins, and Darknuts, and the Cult of Dragmire to join him."
"He found the Cult! Just wonderful!" snapped Zahrain. His outburst drew Ketura's attention; her eyes flickered over to the twins, and she remembered something else.
"Oh, and Amal … she's working with him. She even passed a message between us one time," said Ketura.
"Well I'm not surprised," scoffed Levali.
Impa, looking quite grim, cleared her throat. "How many are in this army?"
"I don't know," said Ketura.
"This is one hell of a problem," sighed Ashei. "An army. No idea how many there are, or what he plans to attack, or when …." She looked at Ketura. "Did you stop meeting him after you came here?"
After giving Telma a remorseful look, Ketura said "No. There's that overlook of Lake Hylia, with the stone ruins and that big owl statue, and we'd meet there and carry on as usual. I can kind of use a sword now, and as always I never got direct answers for any questions I asked him, and then I finally told him that unless he told me everything about his plans I wouldn't be part of them."
"So then you stopped training?" inquired Levali.
"No, that kept going. I thought that maybe, eventually, he'd think it would be easier to just tell me what he's got up his sleeve. The, uh, the only time I got a direct answer was when he asked me to brew a Growth Potion for a Molgera worm."
"What's he doing with a Molgera worm?!" Zahrain was surprised and livid.
Stunned, and harboring a feeling that nobody would like what she was about to say, Ketura said "Freeing the Earth and Wind Sages."
"Telma, get your Gossip Stone and get a hold of Auru now. Have him send teams to the Earth and Wind Temples." Impa said with desperate urgency. Telma pulled her blue Gossip Stone from her apron pocket, stood up, and walked briskly away from the table as she rubbed the stone.
"Do you have any idea what you've done?" Impa asked Ketura. "The Earth and Wind Sages need to stay in their respective Temples. It's their duty to pray for the divine power of the Master Sword. If they are removed in any way, the sword becomes dull and loses its ability to vanquish darkness!"
Ketura shrunk into her seat in response to Impa's words. Behind her, she heard Telma speak hurriedly to Auru.
"The words he used were 'free the Sages?'" asked Talo. Ketura turned her eyes to him and nodded apprehensively.
"But what do we do if he succeeds?" asked Luda.
"Whatever we can, however we can," said Ashei. "That's all we can do."
"Wait- are you saying-" Ketura paused, unsure of how she was going to finish the sentence.
"That someone's got to put him back in the ground? Damn right that's what I'm saying," said Ashei bluntly.
"…Oh."
"And trust me, kid, this'll be doing you a favor, especially since I'm not asking you to do it yourself." Ashei leaned forward and looked Ketura dead in the eye. "He's not your friend. He's not on your side. He's using you, for reasons that only the Gods seem to know, and it's not going to end well for you if you even think about keeping this up."
Ketura leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table to prop up her forearms, and cradled her forehead in her hands. She wondered if Ganondorf had said "free the Sages" when he meant something else entirely. If so, she would be complicit in killing at least two people. In addition, this had been the third time she had heard an outsider's opinion on her relationship with Ganondorf; Ashei had said the same things that Zant and Midna told her previously, and if all three of them were seemingly in agreement then perhaps it was the truth. She sighed, racked her brain once more to think if there was anything about her that could potentially be exploited besides her apparent stupidity and lack of discernment, and speculated that the Goddesses should perhaps transfer the Triforce of Courage to Ashei.
"Is there anything else we should know?" Impa asked.
Ketura lifted her head and looked up at Impa. She didn't say anything at first, and took note of Impa's furrowed brow and worry-filled eyes. Nothing immediately came to mind to share, until she clasped her hands together tightly.
"After Zant took my dad, I ran back out to Hyrule Field to look for him. Ganondorf was there, and the first thing he asked me to do was to show him my hands. He refused to help save Dad at first, but then offered to if I'd stay with him for the rest of my life."
In unison, everyone at the table glanced down at the Triforce crest on the back of Ketura's hand. Telma's eyes widened. Ketura heard the rapid scratching of someone writing.
"Zant was interested in my hands too, once he had …." Ketura couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence.
Silence fell on the room. Ketura hid her face in her hands again as she felt tears welling up in her eyes. She fought against them with deep breaths and attempts to take her mind off her father's death. In her mind's eye, though, she once again saw his blood-soaked and broken body. "Sorry," she murmured, and then felt Impa's hand on her shoulder.
"The Triforce, of course," said Impa softly. "That must be what he wants. How predictable …. If Zant had the Triforce of Power …."
"But Zelda's dead, so the Triforce of Wisdom has changed hands," Ashei pointed out. "We need to contact Lady Arianne and tell her to lay low, just in case, or assume protection of her."
"I know. But he knows about the existence of the Orb of the Triforce, so he could easily find it," said Impa.
"Taking Hyrule Castle would give him access to it," Zahrain added.
"So if it did pass to Arianne, she would most likely be better off leaving the country if the worst should happen," continued Impa.
"And now Ketura has the Triforce of Courage," said Colin.
Ketura removed her right hand and held it front of her face so she could take another look at the Triforce crest. "You think this is what he wants?" she asked, as everything slowly started to make sense.
"I am certain of it," said Impa as she lifted her hand off of Ketura's shoulder. "The Triforces of Wisdom and Courage have never left their respective bloodlines. Wisdom has always resided with the Royal Family, the Nohansens. And Courage has been passed down through your bloodline. He must have counted on Link eventually dying, and making sure you were completely under his influence by the time that happened. Then, once you had the Triforce of Courage, you would do his bidding with it."
"Interesting, this may be the second time in known history where a non-Hero held the Triforce of Courage," commented Talo. "I mean, the first was the son of the Hero of Time, but he stole it, so I don't know if that counts."
"I did not steal this from my dad. Hell, I don't even think I want it," retorted Ketura, not taking her eyes off the back of her hand. She thought of all the times Ganondorf had done nice things for her, and how he said that she was crucial to him getting what he wanted. None of them could replace you, or do for me what you can do. But it wasn't her after all, was it? He just needed a vessel, someone who would cooperate and who he could easily sway. How could she have been so – the words naïve, gullible, foolish, and idiotic bounced around in her head.
"What do we do now?" she asked.
"For starters, you're not leaving this bar," said Telma.
"At least by yourself," added Impa.
"But you need to stay far away from him," advised Ashei. She then exchanged glances with Impa.
"Ashei, you're the next best swordsman after Link," said Impa, "so can I count on you?"
Ashei nodded firmly.
Impa paused for a moment, stroking her chin while deep in thought. "We'll need to send Seline and her scouts out to see if they can find anything, but I don't know how we can begin to defend the city."
"Our people here in the city can take turns patrolling along the walls both inside and out, perhaps," suggested Colin.
"Are any of them good with a bow?" asked Talo.
"I don't know, but you could probably teach them," said Colin.
"Arrows won't do much against Darknuts," said Ashei.
It was quiet again. Everyone glanced around the room, tense and anxious, while Ketura tried to wrap her mind around the possibility that Ganondorf would attack Castle Town. If he did, she didn't know what she would do. He would probably expect her to join him, but after fires and disease she thought that the people of Castle Town had suffered enough. And if all he wanted were the other pieces of the Triforce, why involve anyone else? Yet she couldn't completely get behind the idea of killing him, and she couldn't figure out why.
"Ketura, maybe one more meeting with Ganondorf wouldn't be a bad idea," said Impa.
"Absolutely not!" Telma snapped.
"We would be hiding nearby and would get her out of there just in case something happened. But if we are going to fight against him we need to know what to expect. And since Ketura has been so kind to establish a connection for us …."
All eyes were on her again. Ketura looked from Impa to Telma, getting the feeling that the former would want her to agree and the latter would want her to refuse. She looked down at her hands and thought about it, about what she wanted to do and what she thought would be best for both herself and everyone else.
"I'll go," she said to Impa. From there, she found the clock on the bar's wall, seeing that it was ten minutes to midnight. "Now."
"Are you sure?" Impa asked.
Ketura nodded. "Yeah, I'm sure."
She put on her jacket, scarf, and gloves, and made her way into the tunnels with everyone else behind her. The only exception was Telma, who stayed in the bar to await their return and updates from Auru about the Earth and Wind Temples. Despite everything that had been said by Impa and the others at the meeting, Ketura wasn't afraid. She spent the walk through the tunnel trying to think of ways to get him to talk, while behind her Impa discussed hiding places and extraction strategies. Ketura absentmindedly said "Yes, I've got it" when Impa asked her if she understood the procedure for getting her out of there if Ganondorf tried to take her – in truth, she didn't catch a single word of the plan other than a passing mention of Deku Nuts. She also told herself, repeatedly, that no matter what she was doing the right thing, even though a small part of her felt like she was about to commit a massive betrayal.
The night was dark, as clouds concealed the moon and stars. In the light of her lantern, Ketura saw small white flurries falling to the ground, adding some thickness to the blanket of snow that already came up past her ankles. She trudged on, snow crunching under her feet, and then she paused. Looking around, she saw that the others had already vanished into the darkness. Although she knew they would be looking out for her, she felt exposed and vulnerable. Nervousness manifested herself in light nausea and a racing heartbeat.
She saw Ganondorf up ahead, standing at the entrance to the overlook where they usually met. At first he was a tall silhouette that her lantern's illumination barely reached, but as she drew closer he came into better focus. The hood of his cloak sat on top of his head, and his arms were folded in front of him.
"You came," he said, sounding pleased.
Before Ketura could respond, her right hand started glowing, surrounded by a warm golden light. The Triforce crest shone through her glove, with the lower right triangle shining the brightest. She looked from her hand to Ganondorf … and then saw his right hand glowing in the same way. He looked from his hand to her hand, and he grinned. All she could do was gawk in astonishment.
"You have the Triforce of Courage?" he said, excited.
"Yeah … what's it doing?" she asked. The golden glow gradually faded until only the Triforce crest remained on the surface of her glove, and then it disappeared as well.
"Resonating, in the presence of the Triforce of Power," answered Ganondorf. The glow faded from his hand as well. "As the Triforce of Power did in the presence of the Triforce of Courage."
Ganondorf looked like he was having the best day of his life. Ketura glanced down at her right hand, then to his hand, and then re-established eye contact with him.
"I am surprised that Midna has not tried to whisk you away again. She seemed so eager to remove you from Hyrule Castle after the battle that-"
"Midna's dead," Ketura cut him off. "Zant killed her, and she had enough magic left for that."
"I see." Ganondorf said shortly. "I was coming to just as you were leaving, and I assumed … no matter. Were you the one to finish Zant?"
"Yeah," said Ketura.
"Well done."
A beat of silence passed.
"The Triforce of Power … that is what you wanted from Zant, wasn't it?" Ketura asked.
"Yes."
"Okay … good. I'm glad you got what you wanted," said Ketura, unsure of how glad she really was. "So I guess that means you don't need me anymore."
Ganondorf shook his head. "Wrong. I wanted you to have the Triforce of Courage, Ketura. Nobody in Hyrule is more worthy of it than you are, living or dead. And now that you have it, you and I are one step closer to achieving all that we desire. Do you know what has become of the Triforce of Wisdom?"
Ketura's mouth gaped open. "Uh, no. I don't." She remembered the lore surrounding the Triforce: that when it was whole, it would grant the desires of whoever wished upon it.
"Princess Zelda, do you know of any family she may have? Anyone who would have a claim to the throne now that she is dead?"
She thought of Lady Arianne, Zelda's sister, and Arianne's unborn child. "No," she said.
"No matter. It should be easy enough to find," said Ganondorf as he looked past her towards Hyrule Castle. Ketura followed his line of sight and also gazed on the castle for a moment.
"So, your army …." Ketura said casually, hoping that he would now freely volunteer information since things seemed to be going so well for him.
"It is ready, and I have succeeded in freeing the Earth and Wind Sages," said Ganondorf.
"Where are they now? The Sages?" Ketura turned her head back to look at him again.
His refusal to answer said everything. She felt like she had been hit in the chest with a heavy weight.
"It is a splendid force, and I cannot wait for you to see it," said Ganondorf. "Tomorrow night, I will bring it here to this eastern gate, to present to Impa."
The news rattled her a little bit. "Great. Sounds … great. It's got everyone? Lizalfos, Moblins, Darknuts, the Cult of Dragmire? The Molgera worm?"
"The Molgera worm is staying at the Wind Temple … but yes. Everyone you just named, and the Cult is providing catapults and rams to breach the walls."
"I see," said Ketura. "So, you're saying all of that is coming here, to Castle Town, tomorrow night?" She spoke a little louder, almost shouting, meticulously enunciating each syllable.
"Keep your voice down!" snapped Ganondorf.
"Sorry," whispered Ketura. She wasn't sorry. Hopefully someone hiding nearby heard it.
Ganondorf turned in a circle, looking all around and above and below. When he faced Ketura again, he said "Yes. If there is any hope of marching an army of one thousand from the Arbiter's Grounds to here by then we should leave now."
Her eyes widened. "We?"
He nodded. "We. As in you and I."
She stared at him, dumbfounded. "Uh …." Maybe that would be the cue for Impa to get her out of there?
"Why do you hesitate?" asked Ganondorf.
"I-I'm not. It's just … I don't know …. I … um ... um … I told Impa about the army."
"What? Why would you do that?!"
"Well I figured that if it's for her use, she'd like to know about it."
She watched as his chest rose dramatically, and he exhaled in angry huffs.
"Unless you lied to me, and you're going to attack Castle Town," added Ketura cautiously. "I just want you to know, that if you are, I don't want to be involved, and I don't agree with it. Everyone in that city has been through enough already. They don't need a war either."
"Who said anything about war, or me attacking Castle Town?" Ganondorf asked indignantly.
Ketura stepped backwards. Ganondorf shot his hand forward and tightly grabbed her upper arm, digging his fingers into her skin and pulling her closer to him. She winced at the pain.
"Are you really starting to believe what Impa and her friends are saying about me, rather than trusting what you have seen and know to be true? You know I would never do anything to hurt you."
Ketura struggled the best she could, only to feel additional pressure and pain as she struggled against his hold on her. "Then let go," she pleaded.
"I can't. You'll go, and they'll keep us apart. I won't be able to help you anymore. Do you want that?"
"I-uh- well, maybe!" she protested. Where was Impa, she wondered. She couldn't tell what was going to happen next, if Ganondorf would just keep talking or if he would actually hurt her. This was perhaps the first time since the night of his resurrection that he had genuinely scared her. Something had changed, she thought. Was it the Triforce of Power? Discovering she had the Triforce of Courage? Was he nervous about something? All she knew was that she did not like this turn in his behavior.
Ganondorf's expression softened slightly. "Your father is dead. So is Midna. You have nothing to gain from staying with them, and everything to gain with me. What can they offer you? Who among them has your best interests at heart, and who among them can you truly call a friend? They only tolerated your presence for your father's sake and never valued you as your own person." His grip on her loosened but he still kept hold, and his eyes flickered down to her hand.
Ketura noticed how he gazed at her hand. "If you want it so bad, then just take it!" she shouted. "That's all it's ever been about anyway! Not me. You never cared about me!"
He stood still, absolutely stunned by her words. She took the opportunity to yank herself free, sweep up her lantern, and scurry back, putting a few more yards between the two of them. In the light cast by her lantern, her eyes met his, and she saw how dismayed he was.
"No, Ketura-"
"Stop. Just stop." She cut him off forcefully as a fire rose in her belly. "I'm done. I'm leaving."
"What do you want me to do?" he asked. "What can I say or do that will convince you to stay?"
Ketura watched him as he took a step towards her. Her upper arm still throbbed in the spots where his fingers had dug into her skin. "I don't know. But for once, just tell the truth: are you going to attack Castle Town tomorrow night?"
A pause. She held her breath.
"Yes." Ganondorf said.
"Then call off the attack. That is what you can do," replied Ketura, mentally preparing herself for any answer he would give.
"No, I cannot do that," he said.
"We have a problem then," said Ketura.
Ganondorf nodded. "Yes, it appears we do," he said. Suddenly, he lunged forward and seized Ketura, his hands clamping tight on her shoulders. "You cannot go back now. You know too much."
"What are you- hey!" Ketura cried as she flailed, struggled, and pushed against him as he pulled her closer to him. She was abruptly turned around, and next thing she knew his hand was clamped over her mouth and his other hand restrained her arms behind her back. Her lantern fell from her hand.
"I don't understand why you are so hesitant-" said Ganondorf, swiftly cutting himself off and bowing his head right as something flew close by, making a faint whistling sound as it zoomed through the air.
Ganondorf lowered his head, positioning his mouth just an inch away from her ear. "This is my destiny, Ketura," he said in a low voice, almost a whisper. "To be a King, to unite the Triforce, and use it to make Hyrule mine … your destiny is to be by my side. Stop fighting it. Accept it … embrace it. Imagine all that we will accomplish together."
If there was an opportune time for Impa and the others to go forward with their extraction plans, Ketura thought, that would be the time to do it. In the meantime, she would likely make him drag her away kicking and screaming if it came to that.
Whatever flew through the air earlier returned, announcing its arrival with another high-pitched whistle-like sound. Ganondorf looked at the ground, located Ketura's lantern, and kicked it in the direction that the mysterious entity had gone. The lantern landed several yards away and shone its light on an arrow, sticking up out of the snow at a diagonal. Before he could react further, a burst of cool gray smoke exploded over the lantern, suffocating its light and throwing the area into pitch darkness.
Maybe this was it, Ketura thought nervously. Next thing she heard was a loud crack, followed by a several loud pops sounding off in rapid succession. Ganondorf let out an "Ah!" and the arm that restrained hers dropped out of place. She wriggled her arms free and was reaching to push his other hand off her mouth when another POP went off, right in her left ear. His hand slid down and off her mouth, and stinging pain hit her left forearm, causing her to cry out as she stumbled forward a couple of steps.
"Impa?" she called out. The sting in her arm quickly subsided, giving way to a heavy numbness. She held her left arm to her chest as she turned in a circle, lighting Din's Fire, only to find herself surrounded by a thick cover of the gray smoke. Next thing she knew, someone laid a hand on her shoulder, and another crack rang out, followed by another puff of smoke that choked the flame in her hand.
When the smoke cleared, whoever had last touched her pushed her forward, and she fell into the hole that served as the entrance to the tunnel. She took a second to recognize where she was, noting the stone slab that instructed one to speak the password to proceed as well as the multitude of traps set beyond the slab down through the tunnel, and then she rubbed her left arm with her right hand. It was still numb.
Impa and Luda came down shortly after she did; Impa shouted "Deku Seeds!" clearly, causing the stone slab and the traps beyond it to sink into the earth, and then she turned to Ketura. "Are you all right … oh, I hit you, didn't I?" she asked, noting Ketura's left arm.
"You did, but it's fine. At least it wasn't an arrow, huh?" asked Ketura, hoping that cracking a joke would introduce some much-needed levity to the situation.
With a sigh, Impa said "Ugh, Talo. Bungled his part … but come on, let's get you back."
The three women walked briskly down the tunnel, taking the turn that would lead them into Telma's kitchen. "Everyone else is staying near the entrance to the tunnel, ready to strike if they must, because I don't know how long he'll be stunned like that," she explained.
"Tomorrow night, though. That doesn't give us much time to prepare," commented Luda, sounding anxious.
"It doesn't. We'll have to do what we can, though," said Impa.
The rest of the trip through the tunnel passed in a blur. When they re-emerged into the bar, they were greeted by a pale-faced, panic-stricken Telma, who held her Gossip Stone tight in her hand.
After a brief uneasy silence, Impa said "Well, it's been eventful … what is it, Telma?"
"I just got the news," said Telma, her voice shaking. "The Earth and Wind Temples – all the Hylian soldiers outside were dead, and there had been so much destruction inside and outside – and the Sages …."
"Are they dead too?" asked Impa.
Telma nodded. "Laruto had been killed by a large group of Poes. And Fado- all they found of him was his leg. They dared not get closer. There's a Molgera worm in the Wind Temple now."
"Then that means," said Luda softly.
"We're in trouble." Impa sighed.
Ketura glanced around at the adult women as guilt and shame rose in her. Ganondorf could probably do what he wanted now, with those two out of the way and the Master Sword powerless ….
She immediately ran for the stairs leading up to the flat, went up and in, and found the Master Sword right where she had left it, propped against a living room wall. The first thing she noticed was that the handguards had folded in, as if they were arms embracing the sword's blade. With her right hand, she picked it up by the hilt and drew it a few inches out of its sheath. The subtle silver glow was gone, leaving the blade a lackluster metallic gray. She gently ran her fingertip over the edges of the blade, to find that it was duller than before.
"Sweet Farore," she muttered, "what have I done?"